


Benefits of Proper Horn Care

by ushauz



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Horn Care, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-04
Updated: 2013-05-04
Packaged: 2017-12-10 10:15:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/784912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ushauz/pseuds/ushauz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Possible side effects of horn care can lead to kissing and excessive flushed feelings for both sides.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Benefits of Proper Horn Care

You are halfway through welding the connectors together when you hear your lusus escorting someone into your hive. You switch the welder off and gently put it down, already knowing exactly who it is and most likely what they want. This could be a while.

You walk up the stairway to the main floor and give Eridan Ampora a stern look. Stern looks, you have learned, are surprisingly effective, and he immediately shifts his gaze to his scuffling feet instead of looking at you. "I swear it wasn't on purpose this time," he finally says guiltily. "Just kinda had an accident, and apparently they were still healing or something because I think I chipped a horn." He pauses for a moment before looking at you with large eyes and adds in a hopeful tone, "hurts like a bitch."

You sigh. You are fairly certain that by continuing to drop everything whenever he comes by with an injury will only develop bad habits in the future, but then again you already nipped a few of his bad habits in the bud, and seeking your attention is certainly not the least healthy thing he could do, so you have been giving in as you reason that his physical health should be taking more of a priority right now than potential bad habits.

Your reasons have nothing to do with how you usually end up kissing afterwards.

You lead him to your medicineblock, something that you believe should be in every hive. While clean and containing numerous pills and various first aid equipment, it also has a comfortable chair, a few tables, and some reading material, and is probably one of the more lived-in blocks of your hive partially because working with machinery and robots designed to try to kill you somehow lead to injuries, partially due to having the strange desire to fix others and give them new limbs when they foolishly engage in high stakes FLARPing games, and now partially because of Eridan's current issues with controlling himself without injuring himself.

He settles down in the chair, eyes watching you with rapt anticipation. It's a bit heady, the way he focuses completely and solely on you, something that was heady the first time when it wasn't meant to be, when you had pulled him in here after having seen him at Vriska's on a polite visit and noticed the state of his horns, cracked and chipped and ground down in parts and in utter disarray.

You became a firm believer in horn care after your incident when you were young, when you had thought the proper thing to do was let it naturally heal and had gotten an infected tract, when you had gone nearly insane from the pain and ended up breaking it even further.

You vigorously wash your hands with soap before pulling a jar off of one of the shelves on rote memory, the contents of which are designed to soothe away hornaches and acts as an ointment and sealant. This brand became your very best friend when you were young and is your immediate go-to for all horn-related injuries. You carefully take off the lid, take a roll of bandages, and walk behind Eridan's chair to get a better view of the damage.

To his credit, it does look accidental, the chip being halfway up the shaft rather than near the edges where most self-inflicted injuries occur. You gently, oh so gently, trace along some of the healing sutures where it wasn't quite-so-accidental, and he shivers under your touch.

Quite a common outlet of suppressed rage, horn damage, usually by grinding horns against hard surfaces. Not the best outlet by a long shot but unfortunately common. You had put a firm stop to it, was surprised when he actually responded to such firmness, and had sent him a list of other activities you personally found useful for keeping anger in check. You had also insisted he come back regularly for you to check up on his horns, another thing you didn't actually expect him to do without incessant nagging, and another thing he did in a heartbeat.

You dip your fingers into the jar before massaging the ointment into the cracks with the lightest of touches. Eridan sighs, a happy relieved sound, and yet to his credit doesn't try to buck his horns into your fingers like last time which didn't end well for anyone.

He had been surprised to find that you were good at this, that you had learned to not touch things and handle delicates with care, as if the inner workings of your robots weren't extremely fragile, as if you hadn't cared for your own broken horn for sweeps now.

So you massage it in with the faintest of pressures, following the chipped area and then around, following the new growth (he has been taking better care), and then the natural old growth patterns formed by quick successive molts when one is young. And he goes completely limp in the chair, the only sign of him being awake a long warbling chirr of contentedness.

You then take the bandages and start wrapping them around. Special bandages, allowing the horn to still breathe so to speak, that wouldn't cause complete sensory deprivation, though certainly having anything wrapped around a horn can result in a loss of depth perception. His chirr picks up, develops into more of a staccato at this that has nothing to do with you getting pheromones all over the bandages and thus onto his horns since that would be unprofessional. You do make sure to leave the upper tip of his horn free before taping it secure.

When you are done, you wipe off your hands on a conveniently placed towel and take your time recapping the jar, halfway through which you can feel those eyes swivel around to just watch and wait. You take more time than strictly necessary, making sure the lid is on good and tight and the jar placed exactly where it once was and revel in the deep pleasure at being waited upon.

"So come on," he finally says impatiently and eagerly, breaking the silence between the two of you. "I have been good. Horns are in great shape aside from that one chip." He grins at you when you turn to look at him, oozing charm and satisfaction more befitting of a purrbeast than any sea creature (though you would never tell him that).

"Yes, you have appeared to have taken my lecture to heart," you say, stepping over to him. "Very good. Your horns may actually recover from what you put them through."

He chirrs again before surging upwards to finally kiss you, and you melt under his enthusiasm.

Unfortunately because your body is frustrating and aggravating and refuses to cooperate, you still lack the control to be able to kiss back, to be able to do a good number of things to this boy, a list that grows longer with each passing day and thought, and you get the feeling he would let you do any of them to him, would be utterly comfortable with your weird boundaries and ideas. You suspect he might have a few of his own that do not revolve around sensualizing jars of ointment.

He pushes a bit further, kisses a bit deeper, threads his fingers through your hair, and you have to choke back a sound to get him to stop because otherwise you might, and you can't yet without hurting him. And he does, quickly and obediently, already probably knowing the reason as you are once again exuding pheromones all over the place. He sheepishly hands you a towel which you make quick use of.

"So, ah, yes. I would highly recommend coming back again in several days so I can continue to oversee your recovery," you say, somehow managing to get the words out in the right order. Remarkable that.

Eridan nods and inches towards the door before halting, fins back against his head. "Uh, I don't think I have to leave now if you don't want me to. I could probably just, I dunno, hang about."

You blink for a moment before fiddling with the towel. "I am currently in the process of refining some robotic work. It'd probably be boring to watch."

He shrugs. "It's okay. Might learn something. And if it really does get boring, I do have a handheld device, and there's all these people I have to chat with. Gotta gossip with Kar on a regular basis otherwise he starts having real violent tics all over his hive."

"Purely out of the generosity of your heart of course," you say in a straight voice, and he grins at you again, fins perking forwards. You swear his fins are as much of a tell as your own pheromone issues are for yourself.

And while it probably would be a distraction and ensure you getting nothing else productive done today, he looks so hopeful, and you suppose you have been a recluse from the outside world for a while. You nod, and he kisses you on the cheek regardless before somehow magically bounding off exactly to where your laboratory is. You smile to yourself and follow afterward.


End file.
